Archive Page 45
Here’re some random photos I took in Jan 2010.
My wedding band and engagement ring. I was testing the macro mode of the Nokia X6’s camera and I must say I was impressed!
There’s this Ipoh Hor Fun place at Maxwell Chambers. I can’t remember the name now – the business card’s in office – Weng Kee or something like that. It’s pretty good. The horfun’s smooth and very thin. Delicious!
There’s this Korean coffee place at Icon Village called Tom N Tom’s. The decor’s really nice but I thought the coffee was so-so only. Maybe more aromatic than Starbucks but nothing to really shout about.
My new (above) and old (below) handphone straps.
For some reason, someone thought it was a great idea to celebrate Upsize’s birthday. This is my 3rd year with the company and the first time it has happened. I wonder if the fact we did our appraisals earlier this year, thus coinciding with Upsize’s birthday, had anything to do with it.
My dad decided to get a new dining table so the set above has been given away. Sigh. I miss it. This dining set was bought by my parents even before I was born!
Saw this at Ikea last week. “Property of Coca Colaâ€. I just thought it was interesting.
Haven’t posted anything for one whole week ‘cos I was really busy at work. Was trying to sort out this deal with an insurer in Bermuda – was working on the policy wording and structure with the underwriter and legal counsel when the latter passed away suddenly 2 weeks ago. The entire underwriting process was delayed a few days ‘cos of the funeral (it was very shocking for everyone) and then the underwriter that I was negotiating with had to go on business travel. The deal was thus passed to his boss and the corporate counsel to look after. We very nearly didn’t manage to close it ‘cos the corporate counsel wasn’t familiar with how certain trade deals are done and he wasn’t comfortable with the enforceability of certain negotiable instruments in the Philippines. Thank God, after working past mid-night for one week, the deal was finally wrapped up on Mon night.
Anyway, here’re some pics I took of the bunnies in Jan. They’re so darlings!
Pinky with his ear held high. Think he raised his ear when he heard me coming down the stairs and walking into the dining room. He obediently listened to my instruction to “Keep your ear up!†while i whipped out my hp camera to snap some photos. Heh.
Left: Pinky asking Horlicks to sayang him by licking his head.
Right: Horlicks lazing around.
Left: Coffee just recently started coming into the house. He’s still quite timid and will usually dash out if he hears someone come down the stairs into the dining area where he usually takes cover under some chairs.
Right: Coffee – much more comfortable outside.
Left: Pinky and Horlicks partying in the living room. Iceman and I were on our way out one day when we found both of them on the coffee table! Horlicks jumped off before I had the chance to take the photo. Heh. Iceman took some flip videos of them… need to download & post. 😛
Right: That’s Horlicks on our side table… she likes to jump on the sofa, hop onto the side table then make her way to the next sofa.
Pinky checking out my dad’s massage chair.
Pinky & Horlicks – thirsty after all the acrobatics.
Iceman and I went to Deli Turk at Suntec (next to Kuishin Bo) for dinner last night. The food was great! Service was excellent too. Here’re the pics of what we had.
Chick Pea salad for starters. The chick peas came with olive oil dressing and seasoned with dill, parsley and spring onions. Very appetising!
We shared the Mixed Grill Platter which had 3 types of meat (lamb, beef and chicken) seasoned in different ways! Everything was well marinated with herbs, and the beef was savoury, the chicken had a tinge of honey and the lamb was a little spicy too. Even the rice at the side was tasty. Really really yummy.
This is the recommended dessert – Kunefe. It’s a couple of layers of shredded pastry joined by a thin layer of unsalted cheese, baked in a hot oven, topped off with light syrup and served with pistachios and a drizzle of cream. The pastry was crispy and the unsalted cheese was rich. This has to be one of the best desserts I’ve ever had.
Iceman finished his meal with a cup of Turkish Coffee, which I must warn, even the “medium sweet†preparation was very bitter.
I had a complimentary cup of tea. So nice of them hor? 😛
As Iceman and I were waiting for our movie to start, we sat at the restaurant and chatted… and were given another 2 complimentary apple tea. Such a sweet gesture.
There’s also a branch of Deli Turk at 162 Upper East Coast Road. Do check them out. Highly recommended by me!!
Here’s their website: http://eastcoast.turkishcuisine.com.sg/
I’ve been thinking about this for a few months now. I really need to get a car of my own. After driving for 6 years, not having round the clock access to a car makes me feel handicapped. I feel as though my mobility is impaired and it’s a terrible feeling!
I initially thought that using taxis to regain my mobility might be cheaper than buying another car. Based on my rough estimation, however, if I wanted to take taxi to and from work daily, and when I go out on weekends, this may come up to $1.5k per month because of all the peak hour surcharge and additional fees to book a taxi (bearing in mind that queuing for a taxi is contrary to regaining mobility).
If I buy a car whose monthly instalment is abt $500 + insurance + road tax + petrol and parking of $400, it would come up to about $1.2k – still cheaper!
So I’ve decided. My priority for this year is to get a car. I shall start looking in this Sat’s papers!
Posted by Wordmobi
I’m sure most of you would’ve read about the “measly†50k that the Singapore government donated to the Haiti relief efforts. After reading my friend’s blog about it, I felt moved to write down my thoughts.
Please see my friend’s blog post here: http://iantan.org/archives/2068
This is my response:
I agree with the government’s position on the matter, that the amount of donation it gives is not necessarily proportional to the scale of the disaster. That said, I admit I was a teeny bit embarrassed by the 50k – it seemed like pittance.
Re-examining my feelings, however, I concluded that the government probably took the right step after all. This is because monetary donations by the government need to be objective and the most objective, unemotional way, is to weigh our donation against the historical/trade/economic ties we have with the country we donate to.
Most importantly, when I asked myself why did I feel embarrassed, I realised it boiled down to a matter of "face", which in itself is wrong, because we do not help others out of saving "face" for ourselves.
Going back to the last paragraph by the MFA, if any Singaporean feels that the amount is too small, then that individual should make a personal donation. After all, if one can criticise the government for this, then that person should sufficiently convicted to make a personal donation isn’t it?
Nokia really drives me nuts sometimes. Iceman and I saw this programme last night which showed that Google was trying out this new software that will allow Android users to use the handphone camera to snap a picture of an object that the user wants more information on, and the software will do the rest.
I told Iceman that I recall seeing something similar for Nokia phones. I did a quick search today and found out the name for it – Nokia Point & Find. This (if I’m not wrong), was launched in Nov 2009 but as usual, minimal publicity has been done for it. I came across it the last time purely by chance.
Nokia’s Point & Find isn’t available for the X6 yet (ironically, it’s available for my old N82) but the list of models that it can work on is expanding. For more information, please see:
5 Reasons Nokia Ovi Maps And Navigation Will Beat Google
Published January 25th, 2010 in Geek Speak. 0 Comments(URL: http://tinyurl.com/ycbpmga)
By Andrew R Hickey, ChannelWeb
4:33 PM EST Thu. Jan. 21, 2010
Nokia on Thursday unveiled the latest version of its Ovi Maps application, which introduces free turn-by-turn voice navigation and directions for driving and walking to Nokia smartphones.
Many see Nokia’s new Ovi Maps release as the Finnish mobility giant’s slap at Google, which added similar functionality to its Google Android mobile operating system in October when it released Google Maps Navigation, which takes elements from the widely used Google Maps and Google Street View and layers voice search and turn-by-turn voice directions
Here are five reasons why Nokia’s Ovi Maps offering will beat Google for Smartphone-based maps and navigation supremacy.
1. Nokia Is The Leader In The Mobile Phone Market.
Nokia is the world’s largest manufacturer of mobile phones and has the largest global installed base. While Google Android is still in its infancy, it is an uphill climb for Google to gain the mobile momentum that Nokia has established. Nokia adding Ovi Maps navigation and turn-by-turn walking and driving directions to its smartphone line will put navigation and GPS capabilities into more hands across the globe. According to a Canalys report, the installed-base of smartphones with integrated GPS was 163 million in 2009 and Nokia accounted for more than half of them, 83 million to be exact.
2. Nokia Ovi Maps Is More Widely Available.
The new version of Nokia Ovi Maps includes high-end car and pedestrian navigation features like turn-by-turn voice guidance for 74 countries, in 46 languages, and traffic information for more than 10 countries. It also adds detailed maps for more than 180 countries. Google offers free car navigation in the U.S. only.
3. Nokia Ovi Maps Will Be Available On More Devices.
At its launch, 10 Nokia devices will support Nokia Ovi Maps, including the N97 mini, the 5800 XpressMusic and the E72. More phones will be added in the coming weeks and come March Nokia plans to start releasing new phones with the Ovi Mapssoftware pre-installed. Google Maps Navigation got its start on the Motorola Droid in October. Since then it has also been made available pre-installed on the Google Nexus One.
4. Nokia Ovi Maps Can Work Offline.
There’s nothing worse than trying to find your way and not having a connection to do so. Nokia Maps Ovi uses a hybrid system that can operate both when it is connected to the Internet and when it is completely offline, meaning when you can’t catch network coverage you can still get directions. Google Maps Navigation requires a connection.
5. Nokia Is Packing In A Host Of Other Features.
Included with Nokia Ovi Maps are a host of additional services not offered by Google Maps Navigation. Nokia Ovi Maps gives free access to traffic data and travel guides from Lonely Planet. It also ties in other location-based services with a location-sharing feature that works directly with Facebook.
Monday morning 10:08am. Everyone around me is trying to work – some on the phone brokering deals, most clearing e-mails that came in over the weekend, Shaker and Atas are having a discussion about their regional policy and I’m trying to prepare for a conference call at 11:30am. I am distracted, however, thanks to Bubbs’ boss chatting away with Bouncy about his weekend outing to Botanical Gardens & now about the news he read this morning. Good grief. As an associate director, I expect him to work harder in bringing in new clients to replace the ones he lost last year, rather then spend time chit chatting with his staff. So irritating.
Met up with some secondary school classmates for dinner on Fri night. The group included 3 moms and 1 pregnant lady. As usual, a lot of the conversation hovered around their babies and i was so bored! I was pretty worried at one stage cos i was seated next to a mom whose daughter wouldn’t stop drooling – as in entire chin dripping kind of drooling. It was really gross. I can’t describe how glad i was when this butch finally came and swopped places with the mom with drooling kid.
Logically speaking, i think it’s not a bad idea to have children cos they can provide company when you’re old (assuming they don’t abandon you) but on an emotional level, i simply have no love for kids.
I know i probably offended some moms at the gathering by telling them bluntly that i find young children extremely dirty and unhygenic but i couldn’t care less – not after freaking almost everyone asked me when is it my turn. *Rolls eyes* I seriously don’t get this assumption – when did being married come hand in hand with having babies? The next time someone asks me that, i’m going to shoot back this question, “When are you getting divorced?”. After all, with divorce rates going up and birth rates dropping, my question is definitely the more logical one.
Anyway, the butch commented that when we eventually have more babies in the group, we’d probably need to have our gatherings at someone’s house. Eww.. I told her she can count me out. To me, a gathering for moms to show off their babies is like a pet show. Very akin to dog owners who bring their dogs out for exhibition and competitive shows.
Now, before you say i’m being evil, even the Straits Times hold a similar view. If you recall, about 1-2 years ago, pet owners could send in cute photos of their pets and have them published in the papers on Sundays. As of last year, i noticed this section of the Sunday papers is still going strong – except instead of sending in photos of pets, the column now shows off photos of people’s kids! Now what does that say eh?
Posted by Wordmobi
My dad, who’s an extremely risk averse person, used to warn against sitting directly below fans. I used to do that too… but stopping being so careful as “nothing ever happenedâ€. Well, this article shows that… my dad isn’t that paranoid after all.
==============
FAN FALLS ON COUPLE
Wife recalls fan falling on her and husband
A couple were enjoying a late breakfast at a food centre in Bedok when they suddenly felt something hit their heads.
By Shree Ann Mathavan and Lediati Tan
21 January 2010
They were planning to have a late breakfast at a food centre after shopping for groceries.
The couple chose a table in a quiet corner as it was directly under a fan. They ordered their coffee from a drinks stall and were about to sit down when they suddenly felt something hit their heads.
Madam Genevieve Logaraj and her husband recoiled in pain. After the initial shock, they realised that the ceiling fan above them had fallen.
The spinning blades had hit them both before crashing onto the table and then landing on the floor. This freak accident happened at about 11am yesterday at Fengshan Food Centre at Block 85, Bedok North Street 4.
Said Madam Logaraj: "There was no sound, then I was hit on the head.
"Everything went black. I held onto the table and I felt faint. So I sat down and put my head between my legs."
The couple were taken to Changi General Hospital for outpatient treatment.
Madam Genevieve received three stitches for a cut on her forehead and her husband had eight stitches on the top of his head.
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